environment where there's very rapid transmission of ideas, of concepts, and of risks. for example, if it's true that aids first arose somewhere in central africa, it would have been-- the world would have been a lot better off if that part of africa had had a better surveillance system and could have discovered this problem a year or more earlier than they did. that's just one example. this inter-relatedness of the world community was instrumental to the formation of the pan american health organization... even though the year was 1902. the intention was to provide a forum in which the countries could tell each other about what diseases were a problem, and agree on approaches that would allow for the control of the diseases-- these diseases-- without impeding trade. in those times, of course, was largely by ship. in 1948, the concept expanded with the formation of the world health organization, and six regional offices that included paho. some of its efforts are focused toward the eradication of single diseases like polio, using thsalk d th. david bennett: with these t